Departing Yellowknifers talk about leaving
Statistics Canada reports around 500 people have left NWT since last year
Evan Kiyoshi French
Northern News Services
Friday, June 26, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Solitude, proximity to nature and friends isn't enough to keep yoga instructor Sylvie Boisclair in the city.
Sylvie Boisclair - a yoga instructor who has called the city home for 15 years - is leaving in September. Around 500 people have left the territory since 2014, according to recent Statistics Canada population estimates. - Evan Kiyoshi French/NNSL photo |
The 53-year-old - who was born in Montreal and moved to Yellowknife about 15 years ago - said she'll miss the midnight sun but now that her husband has retired they're moving to Edmonton.
The couple is not alone in their departure.
Boisclair is part of a trend mirrored in recently-released Statistics Canada population estimates showing around 500 people have left the territory since last year.
Since the GNWT gets a transfer payment from the federal government of $35,000 per resident, the loss of 491 people means a loss of $17.2 million in funding for programs. The drop is a setback for the GNWT, which set a goal last year to increase the population by 2,000 people within five years.
Boisclair said she's leaving to be closer to her children, and is looking forward to living in a bigger city again.
If it were up to her, she'd make a lot of changes to the city.
"There's so many things," she said, adding she'd like to see Yellowknife taking an example from larger "very progressive cities."
There are willing, progressive souls but Boisclair feels they're outnumbered.
"I feel there's a lot of good will but there's something about bringing the good will together that's not happening ... There's a lot of the old school (and the idea that) we're going to do things the way we always did,' and then there's the progressive group.
"I know at least in a bigger centre there will be more power to the people who want to move out of the old way of doing things."
She said political leaders need to follow through on social projects.
"It's a lot of ribbon cutting," she said. "Let's inaugurate our website to tell the youth not to take drugs but what's the other option? There's not even a skate park."
After working for the Federation Franco-Tenois and at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Boisclair went into radio for two years before becoming a yoga instructor.
"I realized Yellowknife is the land of opportunity," she said.
However, Boisclair said she's excited to be heading south where she hopes her passions will be appreciated.
By July, Heather Clarke will have left as well. The vice-chairperson for Yellowknife Education District No. 1 stepped down from her post at the board's last meeting as she too is moving to Edmonton. Clarke has been here since 2002 and has mixed feelings about her pending departure.
"It wasn't an easy decision at all," she said. "We're moving to be closer to family and that's what it comes down to."
Clarke said she hails from outside Vancouver and moved here to follow her husband who was already living and working in the city when they married.
"It's a great place to raise a family, it's a great little town," she said. "I've done a lot of different things that if I'd been anywhere else I wouldn't have been able to do."
Her daughter is now 11 years old and Clarke said it's time for a change. She isn't sure what she'll be doing in Edmonton yet.
"We'll see what opportunities there are," she said, adding she doesn't rule out returning to Yellowknife in the future.
Neomi Jayaratne said she never had plans to stay when she moved to the city three years ago.
The 27-year-old from Hamilton, Ont., said she came to take up a job with Service Canada, having gone to school for music and cartography.
"I was looking for jobs," she said. "I wasn't getting anything. But ... I got two job offers and one was up here and the other was back in Oshawa (Ontario)."
Oshawa wasn't enough of a change so Jayaratne uprooted and moved to the North.
"I didn't plan to stay here long-term, I just wanted to experience it," she said. "I had no idea what I was coming up to."
She said she hasn't missed rush-hour traffic and enjoyed her time here.
"It's a beautiful place," she said. "It's a place that not a lot of people get to see."
But she's had enough, she said, and in September she'll move back home to Ontario with plans to travel.
"I'm planning to not work for a while," she said.
"I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do. Who knows? Maybe I'll be back."
- with files from Shane Magee
